


Forward-Facing

by Iron_Eirlyssa (Eirlyssa)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Disability, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Minor Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov, Pre-Relationship, Socially Awkward Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, Tony Stark's Ass, Winteriron Holiday Exchange, Yoga
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-09-28 04:04:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17175527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eirlyssa/pseuds/Iron_Eirlyssa
Summary: Bucky is doing fine, he really is. But Steve wants him to be more than justfine, which is why he asks his friend to join a yoga class in the park.Which is where he first sees Tony.





	Forward-Facing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Larissaloki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Larissaloki/gifts).



> For Larissaloki - I hope it's everything you hoped for!!!
> 
> For everyone else - I hope you enjoy it.

“It’ll help, trust me.”

Bucky was not convinced. “I really doubt that.”

“Come _on_ , Buck. You need to get outside more.” The look on his face was one that Bucky was intimately familiar with - that stubborn set to his jaw, the determination in his eyes. This was something he would fight for, and would keep fighting for.

Unfortunately for him (or for Bucky, as the case may be) he was not giving in so easily. “I’m just fine here. I get the groceries, I go to therapy appointments, I shower regularly and I keep things neat. I don’t need to go out, let alone for this.” Hell, he’d come a long way since returning stateside, in part due to Steve’s determination to see him do better. A determination he was still feeling.

“ _Yes you do_.” Steve sighed, and now there was this sad look on his face that Bucky was totally weak for. “I know you’re doing better, I really do. But you’re not _happy_.”

“And you think yoga in the park would make me _happy_?” Bucky asked him, skeptical. It sounded like a terrible idea that he would end up hating and feeling terrible about instead. Hell, he only had one arm - how on earth was he supposed to be doing most of those poses anyway?

Steve sat down in front of him, looking all sincere. “I really think it’d help.” It had seemed to help him, after Sam had convinced him to go. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he had a crush on the instructor. Unfortunately, he’d been trying to convince Bucky to come ever since, and Bucky was not at all interested in doing _yoga_.

Though, to be fair, he was somewhat curious about the kind of woman that would distract Steve. His friend was _notoriously_ terrible about meeting other people, let alone showing any kind of romantic interest in someone.

Perhaps it might be worth it for that, at least. And so he could finally get Steve off his back. “One time. And if I end up hating it, you stop bothering me about it.”

“Deal!” The excited grin on Steve’s face showed exactly how happy he was about this. “I really do think you’ll like it, though. And don’t worry about anything - Natasha is _great_ about making sure that everyone has a good time.” He spontaneously blushed when he realized how that sounded.

The bark of laughter that escaped him was a surprise to him as much as it was to Steve, who promptly lost his blush and gained a huge grin.

**∧ YOGA ∧**

Which was how he ended up actually getting out of his house, somewhat voluntarily, on Saturday morning. He’d declined a ride with Steve, who drove his motorcycle like he was the star in some kind of action movie, deciding to walk instead. The park was closer to his apartment than Steve’s, so it wasn’t that big a problem.

The first thing he saw was Wilson, which had him groaning. He already didn’t like this class.

“Barnes! Steve said he’d managed to convince you to come, but I still held out some hope that you’d lied to him.” He said it all while smiling, of course. The two of them had become friends when Steve had met him at the VA, a friendship Bucky really regretted sometimes (that was a lie, but the both of them liked to pretend and rag on eachother).

“Wouldn’t have come if I’d known you’d be here. Which is prolly why the punk never mentioned it,” he joked in return.

He looked around some more, people trickling in slowly. Wilson introduced him to Clint Barton, who was apparently a human disaster, and Natasha Romanoff, who taught the class. She was interesting and looked more than a bit lethal, and Bucky got why Steve was interested in her. He’d always liked a strong gal, after all.

It didn’t take long before Steve arrived as well, distracting him for a while from everyone else. The class was bigger than he’d expected at first, and contained lots of different people as well. He’d even seen a guy in a wheelchair, who’d shared a wave with Wilson.

“Hey Bucky, Sam, Clint, Natasha,” Steve greeted enthusiastically. Bucky wondered if any of the others noticed his slight blush upon greeting the redhead. If they did, they didn’t call attention to it.

“Alright, we’re going to be starting soon,” Natasha told them. “I’m going to head over to the front of the class, and I’ll be expecting you all to put in a good effort.” She said it with a grin, of course, but Bucky wondered what she was like when people didn’t try their best. Something in her green eyes told him that she wouldn’t go easy on them.

Bucky walked over to the grass where everyone else was gathering, Steve beside him. “I’m really glad you’re here,” his friend confessed. “I half expected you not to show up.”

“I always stick to promises,” Bucky replied, frowning. It was something that had actually helped him out in his recovery - when he made an agreement with Steve, or either of his therapists, he tended to stick to it no matter how badly he was doing.

“I know,” Steve instantly told him, hands raised as if to soothe him. “It’s just that you seemed to dislike the idea of yoga, is all.”

Which, yeah, he still wasn’t sure he would like this at all. He felt awkward, loose pants and a loose shirt that did nothing to hide his missing arm. On the other hand, even without looking in too much detail, he had noticed he wasn’t the only person with a disability in the class, so perhaps it really was a group aimed at everyone.

“Alright, everyone!” Natasha called out from the front of the class, clapping her hands. “I hope you are all ready for today, because I have a fun program put together just for you. Please pick one of the mats spread around.”

Predictably enough, Steve instantly went to the front. Even more predictably, Wilson was right behind him, their friend Clint following as well. Bucky himself was a lot more hesitant, and with Steve’s focus on Natasha, he took advantage to grab one of the mats further away from the front, sticking close to the edge in case anything went wrong and he needed to get away.

The man he’d seen in the wheelchair was in front of him, being helped out and onto his mat by his brunet friend.

“Let’s start with some nice stretches,” Natasha started, distracting Bucky and pulling his attention back towards her. “What I want you all to try doing - don’t push it further than is comfortable - is lie down on your back for some pelvic tilts. I will be walking around to help out where necessary. Some other options...”

As hesitant as he had been about this entire idea, Bucky did have to admit that there was something peaceful about it. All he had to do was follow Natasha’s direction, in some cases using one of the alternatives she offered in case the full pose was impossible for one reason or another. He wasn’t even doing too badly, if he did say so himself.

Until he looked in front of him.

Promptly, he lost his balance where he’d been holding himself on his forearm and fell sideways out of his downward-facing dog position, too stunned to even grunt.

Right in front of him was the most glorious ass he had ever been privileged to lay eyes upon.

Even a sculptor would not have been able to create an ass that perfect. Round, sticking out just the right amount, and all Bucky wanted to do was to worship that ass for the rest of his days. He’d have died happily at that very moment, just staring upon the best thing humanity had ever been granted.

“Are you alright?” came Natasha’s voice from his side, startling him out of his… intense contemplation, and he promptly felt himself blush redder than even Steve had ever been.

“Yeah, sorry,” he forced out. “Just a bit stunned.” No need for her to know why, after all.

Unfortunately, the wink she sent him kind of crushed his hopes of her not having realized exactly _why_ he had been so stunned. “Very understandable,” she told him, sounding like she meant it. “Do you want to try again?”

Not particularly. He’d have happily spent the entire rest of the class ( _hell, the entire rest of his life_ ) looking at that ass without moving another muscle. But he didn’t want to be explaining that out loud, not where everyone could hear, and the purpose of this entire thing was, after all, the yoga. So he moved himself back into position, torn between looking in front of him (because oh, another fall would be more than worth it) and down so he wouldn’t be distracted as much.

Only, it turned out to be nearly impossible to _keep from looking_ now that he’d noticed it. Every single time they switched pose (and every moment in between as well, if he was honest) he snuck in glance after glance.

By the time the class ended, he’d hardly noticed anything except the brunet’s absolutely magnificent ass, going through the poses absentmindedly as Natasha described them. It was only when Steve was walking up to him that he even realized it was over in the first place, and he almost whimpered when he realized he would have to say goodbye ( _ **mentally** , or that would get very awkward_) to that ass.

“Why didn’t you join us in the front?” Steve asked him, and Bucky made sure to look away from the brunet (though he kept him in his peripheral vision) when his friend got there. If Steve were to find out about this, he’d never hear the end of it.

“Just prefer to be in the back,” he shrugged. Then he found himself tensing up - the brunet had helped his friend back into his wheelchair, and now the two of them were walking away. Oh no… “Everyone else here regulars?”

“There were a few new faces besides you - Scott brought his new girlfriend, and I think the guy with Pietro and Wanda is her new boyfriend - but the rest is usually here, yeah. We’ve become quite a close group... although new people are always welcome, of course,” Steve rushed to assure him. “You’re free to come along next week, too, if you want?”

It was almost funny to Bucky how uncertain he looked. As though Bucky _wouldn’t_ be there next week. “Sure, I’ll come again,” he told his friend, pretending to be hesitant.

He wasn’t hesitant. Not at all. He wanted to look at that ass again.

**∧ YOGA ∧**

The same guy was there the next week. And the week after. And the week after that.

Bucky kept joining, which made Steve extremely happy. Sure, he still kept to the back of the class (always behind the same two men, who stuck to the same spots usually), but the fact that he was there and joining in was enough for Steve.

There was something sad (and deeply hilarious) about the fact that he still hadn’t dared to talk to either of them. He knew by now, from overhearing the two of them talk to each other, that they were called Rhodey and Tony, and that Tony was absolutely brilliant, an awesome person, and had an absolutely amazing voice to go along with his amazing ass. They brought along a friend sometimes, a redhead called Pepper, but she didn’t seem to be involved with either of them.

Slowly, Bucky was becoming part of the group as well. He had a bickering sort of friendship with both Wilson and Clint, and he and Natasha respected each other (and had discovered they both spoke Russian, which came in handy when they wanted to talk about things they didn’t want others to hear - he approved of her, and just hoped Steve would gather up the courage to make a move sometime soon). He wasn’t as close with the others, but they talked somewhat regularly and they seemed like nice people.

But autumn was approaching. They’d had some days with lesser weather, which had nearly given Bucky a heart attack. Tony’s ass, encased in his tight yoga pants, was already the best thing he’d ever seen. Having those already-tight pants become wet, clinging to his ass and his thighs and… Yeah, that had been a hard day for Bucky, in more ways than one.

The class wasn’t usually up in the winter, though Natasha had given all of them instructions to keep themselves active inside the house. And Bucky was not ready to miss that ass for three months, not ready at all.

When the final day approached, everyone had brought something for the picnic lunch they would be having afterwards, and Bucky was nearly shaking with nerves. Today, he would have to talk to Tony. Today, or he’d have to wait three months.

(Yes, he was aware that he could probably ask one of the others for Tony’s number, possibly… but it wasn’t like that would be any better. Then he’d have to get in touch and explain that, yes, he could have asked himself and checked to see if Tony was even interested in him at all, but instead he decided to be creepy and go through someone else because he couldn’t work up the courage to talk to Tony himself, which didn’t much recommend him.)

He’d tried really hard to follow his mom’s pumpkin pie recipe, and he thought he hadn’t gotten it too badly, but the smell from some of the others’ bags made him want to throw it straight into the trash. But that meant he’d have to show up with nothing, which he didn’t want to do either.

Social anxiety was no fun.

One last class, he made sure to stick behind Tony and drink in the sight of his glorious ass. Should everything go wrong at the picnic (or should he fail to gather his courage), at least he would have something to remember over the cold, harsh winter months.

“Thanks for all of the fun, everyone,” Natasha ended the lesson with a smile. “And now, I brought a blanket, so if everyone would gather up their dishes and put them on there, let’s make sure we end this on a warm note.” It was pretty cold outside already, and Bucky had been half-worried that Tony would end up wearing something baggier and warmer, but he had done the entire world a favor and shown up in his gloriously tight pants again and again even as the temperature sank.

Even now, though he had conceded with a slightly warmer top, he was wearing those very same pants. Bucky stood to the side of the gathering, munching on a cookie he didn’t even know the origins or ingredients of, and watched as Tony talked and smiled and laughed and then turned to show another flash of that amazing ass.

“So, are you going to keep looking?” a sudden voice came from his side, and he almost choked on his cookie.

“It’s a nice view,” he grumbled at Natasha. He knew she was right, of course. If he wanted to talk to Tony, he had to do so soon. But he was just… scared. For all he knew, Tony would be disgusted and run away and never even come back in a few months, and then he’d never see him and his ass again. And really, maybe it would be better to just leave things be, get through the next few months, and then see him again one the winter break would e -

Before he could finish the thought, Natasha had grabbed his arm and was dragging him over to where Tony was talking to Wanda’s newest boyfriend and Scott. “Hello everyone,” she barged right in, and Bucky felt like a deer in headlights when they all turned to face him and Natasha. And oh, he’d only ever watched Tony from behind or far away, so he had no idea how gorgeous his eyes were, and it wasn’t _fair_. “This is Bucky. Tony, he would like to talk to you.”

He wanted to sink through the ground right now. Yeah, it was true, but _did she have to say it like that_? Tony himself looked between the two of them doubtfully, but then he shrugged and said “okay” and then Bucky was standing there, looking at Tony and kind of forgetting how to talk.

“Hi,” he managed eventually, and maybe sinking through the ground wouldn’t be enough? Why did he have to be so awkward? “I mean…” Yeah, he had meant ‘hi’. Because despite the staring, and the admiring, and the near-worshipping, he’d never actually talked to Tony at all, and he had no idea how to do this when those gorgeous brown eyes were aimed at him and he should have stayed home today.

Thankfully, Tony took some pity on him. Though Bucky could have done without the smile, because he was already devastatingly perfect, and did he have to be even _more_ so? “Hi to you as well.” And Bucky wanted to respond, really he did, but he just couldn’t. So, looking a bit more unsure, Tony kept talking himself. “I ah… hope you enjoyed the classes? This was your first year, right?”

Questions. He could do that. “Yeah, they were… good. I, uh… My friend, Steve, he convinced me to join. And it was… good, so… yeah.” This wasn’t going anywhere, and he could feel himself starting to sweat. “Have you been here long?” A variation on a bad pick-up line it might be, but at least it was something to keep the conversation going.

It seemed to relieve Tony a little as well. “Yeah, a few years now. Rhodey, my friend, he heard about this first, and he convinced me to join as well. Kind of like you and Steve, I guess.” Except he doubted that Tony had kept coming just because he’d fallen in love with someone’s ass (and then the person _attached_ to that ass).

“Difficult to say no to Steve, especially when he starts with the _sad looks_.” This talking thing was going better already. Maybe he should practice more.

He lit up when Tony laughed, delighted that he’d been the reason for it. “That is so true. Though Rhodey has these _stern looks_ \- has had them ever since we met, acting like I’m his kid brother or something,” he grumbled, though it was clear that he loved it even to Bucky.

“Yeah. I’m going to miss y- the class, this winter.” He blushed as he hoped that Tony hadn’t heard him stumble, though Tony’s eyes were a little too sharp, a little too alert, to have missed it.

“It’s been great,” the smaller man agreed. “The winter months are always a bit meh, though some of us do meet up once or twice if we want to.” And was it just Bucky’s imagination, or was there some sort of an invitation in there?

Off to the side, he could see Steve talking to Natasha, and the blush on his face, and it was the final push that he needed. If Steve could do this, he could as well. “Would you like to meet up sometime?” he asked, and then, realizing that could be interpreted in a lot of ways, added “Just the two of us, I mean. Together.”

Now it was Tony’s turn to look startled, and oh God, if he couldn’t look at that ass, Bucky would die happily looking into his eyes as well.

For a moment, Bucky was scared he would refuse, that he’d gone too far and chased Tony away forever. But then a smile started spreading - not his usual happy smile, and not even that somewhat forced-fake one, but this shy smile that Bucky would definitely commit murder for if that was what it took. “I’d lo- I mean, I’d really like that,” Tony told him, all sweet and adorable, and it wasn’t Bucky’s fault that he was already considering marriage and happily after after if Tony looked that way, alright?

“Awesome,” he grinned, excited. And okay, maybe Steve had been right about yoga class being good for him after all, but he couldn’t be bitter about his friend being right. Not if it meant he’d get to go on a date with the most gorgeous, adorable man in the entire world.

And if, during and after that date, he only fell more in love with the man attached to that ass and those eyes? Well, how couldn’t he? And really, Tony didn’t deserve anything less than a happy ending anyway, so Bucky was ecstatic that he was the one who got to help make that happen.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this was fun to read! Feel free to come say 'hi' on my [Tumblr](https://eirlyssa.tumblr.com/).


End file.
